On April 17, United States (U.S.) District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by unlawfully maintaining monopoly power in the digital advertising market. The court found that Google’s dominance in key advertising technology sectors harmed competition, advertisers and consumers.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the court alleged that Google leveraged its marketing strategies to inflate ad prices and increase its share of advertising revenue. The DOJ claims that Google has built an illegal monopoly by closely controlling the publisher advertising servers and advertising exchanges. Publisher ad servers are platforms used by large technology companies and websites to manage and store digital ad inventory. They allow publishers and content creators to monetize their platforms and organize the buying and selling of digital advertising spaces. Advertising exchanges are digital marketplaces where buyers and sellers match to exchange businesses.
According to the U.S. District Court in Virginia, Google has used exclusionary tactics including manipulating advertising auctions, blocking rival technologies and requiring publishers to use its tools in exchange for advertising services. The court claimed that these practices allowed Google to capture more advertising revenue, restrict market competition, inflate prices and harm advertisers, content creators and consumers.
During the court hearing the DOJ presented evidence that Google had “tying” arrangements that pressured customers to use the company’s products and penalized those using competitors services. Internal documents suggest that Google retained 30 cents from every dollar spent on ads through its tools. Judge Brinkema stated that Google had “willfully acquired and maintained monopoly power,” violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits monopolistic behavior.
The decision is one of several antitrust actions involving Google in recent years. In a separate court case on Aug. 5, 2024, a federal judge ruled that Google violated antitrust laws after spending billions to become the default search engine on devices worldwide. As of now a court hearing has been scheduled for May 2, 2025, where they will discuss possible consequences, including halting business operations and forcing Google to “sell off its Chrome browser and make its search data more accessible to rivals.”
